Food Waste Intelligence

We were pleased to contribute to November’s conference on food waste and food security in Arlington, Virginia, led by FFAR, the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research.  The session, entitled Food Waste to Food Security and Beyond: Identifying Research Gaps Across the Food System, pulled together a broad swath of thought leaders from government, NGOs, academia and business to focus on challenges, innovations, and advances in reducing food waste.  FFAR has a specific interest in exploring high impact research opportunities related to inefficiencies in food production, food waste prevention and reduction methods, food waste measurement and reporting methodologies, and alternative uses for food waste (better stated, excess food resources with value).  FFAR’s goal – achieving actionable outcomes through its research – is attractive.. 

Anthony Bourdain’s noble 2017 documentary, Wasted!, about the systemic blight of global food waste, is a welcome and high-profile spotlight. Reducing food waste is a moral and environmental imperative. We throw out hundreds of millions of tons of food while millions of people go hungry. That wasted food contributes tons of greenhouse gases to our atmosphere and leads to trillions of gallons of wasted water.

Hotel buffet lines are notorious waste generators. A recent study by Hyatt Regency Orlando found that guests were eating only about half of the food put out for them, and just 10 to 15 percent of the leftovers could be donated. The rest? Into the garbage with you!

LeanPath has been recognized by the World Resources Institute (WRI) as one of its “Friends of Champions,” a group of purpose-driven organizations working to halve global food waste by 2030.

As much as 41,000 tons of edible food that is presently wasted, or roughly 68 million meals, could be diverted to hunger programs across three of the largest cities in the United States, according to an ambitious, first-of-its-kind study from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).